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also being the ‘efficient’ mother for a friend’s children. As was seen in the previous
extract Cathy's CEs comment (lines 81-82) acknowledges the other women’s
accomplishments but she again diffuses the threat to her own positive self-identity as a
mother through comedic contrast involving negative self- evaluation. Her claims to
'inadequacy' are apparently exaggerated, but because she cannot compete for social
capital with the others through claims of domestic efficiency, she often adopts a comical
role that entertains the others and allows her to reduce any potential face threat to her
own positive self-identity. The focus of this sequence of talk shows that social capital is
available for women through discursive practices such as claiming efficient mothering.
The conversations of these women frequently revolve around the management of
domestic roles, care and protection of children and children’s achievements. Group
cohesion for these women revolves around their social role as mother, and much of their
talk relates to how they achieve ‘good mothering’. Therefore, the talk not only reveals
characteristics associated with the ‘good mother’ identity, it also shows that providing
discursive evidence of adhering to these characteristics allows the speaker to compete for
social capital.
Hopefully he’s through the worst of his adolescence: The ‘concerned mother’.
As the teachers' conversations take place in their workplace setting, their
professional identities are the frontstage roles while their presentation of 'self' as mother
can be seen as a backstage role. However, as the teacher’s interactions take place in
recess breaks the interactions examined here can be deemed 'time-out talk' (Guendouzi,
1998; 2001) and therefore, the women’s back-stage roles surface frequently. The focus of
Convention